Nonreciprocal Superradiant Phase Transitions and Multicriticality in a Cavity QED System.

We demonstrate the emergence of nonreciprocal superradiant phase transitions and novel multicriticality in a cavity quantum electrodynamics system, where a two-level atom interacts with two counterpropagating modes of a whispering-gallery-mode microcavity. The cavity rotates at a certain angular velocity and is directionally squeezed by a unidirectional parametric pumping χ^{(2)} nonlinearity. The combination of cavity rotation and directional squeezing leads to nonreciprocal first- and second-order superradiant phase transitions. These transitions do not require ultrastrong atom-field couplings and can be easily controlled by the external pump field. Through a full quantum description of the system Hamiltonian, we identify two types of multicritical points in the phase diagram, both of which exhibit controllable nonreciprocity. These results open a new door for all-optical manipulation of superradiant transitions and multicritical behaviors in light-matter systems, with potential applications in engineering various integrated nonreciprocal quantum devices.

Quantum-Squeezing-Induced Point-Gap Topology and Skin Effect.

We theoretically predict the squeezing-induced point-gap topology together with a symmetry-protected Z_{2} "skin effect" in a one-dimensional (1D) quadratic-bosonic system. Protected by a time-reversal symmetry, such a topology is associated with a novel Z_{2} invariant (similar to quantum spin-Hall insulators), which is fully capable of characterizing the occurrence of the Z_{2} skin effect. Focusing on zero energy, the parameter regime of this skin effect in the phase diagram just corresponds to a "real- and point-gap coexisting topological phase." Moreover, this phase associated with the symmetry-protected Z_{2} skin effect is experimentally observable by detecting the steady-state power spectral density. Our Letter is of fundamental interest in enriching non-Bloch topological physics by introducing quantum squeezing and has potential applications for the engineering of symmetry-protected sensors based on the Z_{2} skin effect.

Cavity optomechanical chaos.

Cavity optomechanics provides a powerful platform for observing many interesting classical and quantum nonlinear phenomena due to the radiation-pressure coupling between its optical and mechanical modes. In particular, the chaos induced by optomechanical nonlinearity has been of great concern because of its importance both in fundamental physics and potential applications ranging from secret information processing to optical communications. This review focuses on the chaotic dynamics in optomechanical systems. The basic theory of general nonlinear dynamics and the fundamental properties of chaos are introduced. Several nonlinear dynamical effects in optomechanical systems are demonstrated. Moreover, recent remarkable theoretical and experimental efforts in manipulating optomechanical chaotic motions are addressed. Future perspectives of chaos in hybrid systems are also discussed.

Experimental quantum simulation of superradiant phase transition beyond no-go theorem via antisqueezing.

The superradiant phase transition in thermal equilibrium is a fundamental concept bridging statistical physics and electrodynamics, which has never been observed in real physical systems since the first proposal in the 1970s. The existence of this phase transition in cavity quantum electrodynamics systems is still subject of ongoing debates due to the no-go theorem induced by the so-called A2 term. Moreover, experimental conditions to study this phase transition are hard to achieve with current accessible technology. Based on the platform of nuclear magnetic resonance, here we experimentally simulate the occurrence of an equilibrium superradiant phase transition beyond no-go theorem by introducing the antisqueezing effect. The mechanism relies on that the antisqueezing effect recovers the singularity of the ground state via exponentially enhancing the zero point fluctuation of system. The strongly entangled and squeezed Schrödinger cat states of spins are achieved experimentally in the superradiant phase, which may play an important role in fundamental tests of quantum theory and implementations of quantum metrology.

Parity-Symmetry-Protected Multiphoton Bundle Emission.

We demonstrate symmetry protected multiphoton bundle emission in the cavity QED system under the ultrastrong coupling regime. Our proposal only enables the super-Rabi oscillations with periodic generation of even correlated photons in the cavity, which is realized by combining the laser driven flip of qubit and the symmetry conserved transitions induced by Rabi interaction with parity symmetry. Combined with dissipation, only 2n-photon bundle emissions are allowed, due to the almost perfect suppression of bundle emissions with odd correlated photons. Meanwhile, the corresponding purities are significantly enhanced by the parity symmetry. This work extends multiphoton bundle emission to the ultrastrong coupling regime, and offers the prospect of exploring symmetry-protected multiphoton physics.

N-Phonon Bundle Emission via the Stokes Process.

We demonstrate theoretically the bundle emission of n strongly correlated phonons in an acoustic cavity QED system. The mechanism relies on Stokes resonances that generate super-Rabi oscillations between states with a large difference in their number of excitations, which, combined with dissipation, transfer coherently pure n-phonon states outside of the cavity. This process works with close to perfect purity over a wide range of parameters and is tunable optically with well-resolved operation conditions. This broadens the realm of quantum phononics, with potential applications for on-chip quantum information processing, quantum metrology, and engineering of new types of quantum devices, such as optically heralded n-phonon guns.

Mass sensing by quantum criticality.

Mass sensing connects mass variation to a frequency shift of a mechanical oscillator, whose limitation is determined by its mechanical frequency resolution. Here we propose a method to enlarge a minute mechanical frequency shift, which is smaller than the linewidth of the mechanical oscillator, into a huge frequency shift of the normal mode. Explicitly, a frequency shift of about 20 Hz of the mechanical oscillator would be magnified to be a 1 MHz frequency shift in the normal mode, which increases it by 5 orders of magnitude. This enhancement relies on the sensitivity appearing near the quantum critical point of the electromechanical system. We show that a mechanical frequency shift of 1 Hz could be resolved with a mechanical resonance frequency ωb=11×2π MHz. Namely, an ultrasensitive mechanical mass sensor of the resolution Δm/m∼2Δωb/ωb∼10-8 could be achieved. Our method has potential application in mass sensing and other techniques based on the frequency shift of a mechanical oscillator.

Enhanced photon-phonon cross-Kerr nonlinearity with two-photon driving.

We propose a scheme to significantly enhance the cross-Kerr (CK) nonlinearity between photons and phonons in a quadratically coupled optomechanical system (OMS) with two-photon driving. This CK nonlinear enhancement originates from the parametric-driving-induced squeezing and the underlying nonlinear optomechanical interaction. Moreover, the noise of the squeezed mode can be suppressed completely by introducing a squeezed vacuum reservoir. As a result of this dramatic nonlinear enhancement and the suppressed noise, we demonstrate the feasibility of the quantum nondemolition measurement of the phonon number in an originally weak coupled OMS. In addition, the photon-phonon blockade phenomenon is also investigated in this regime, which allows for performing manipulations between photons and phonons. This Letter offers a promising route towards the potential application for the OMS in quantum information processing and quantum networks.

Exponentially Enhanced Light-Matter Interaction, Cooperativities, and Steady-State Entanglement Using Parametric Amplification.

We propose an experimentally feasible method for enhancing the atom-field coupling as well as the ratio between this coupling and dissipation (i.e., cooperativity) in an optical cavity. It exploits optical parametric amplification to exponentially enhance the atom-cavity interaction and, hence, the cooperativity of the system, with the squeezing-induced noise being completely eliminated. Consequently, the atom-cavity system can be driven from the weak-coupling regime to the strong-coupling regime for modest squeezing parameters, and even can achieve an effective cooperativity much larger than 100. Based on this, we further demonstrate the generation of steady-state nearly maximal quantum entanglement. The resulting entanglement infidelity (which quantifies the deviation of the actual state from a maximally entangled state) is exponentially smaller than the lower bound on the infidelities obtained in other dissipative entanglement preparations without applying squeezing. In principle, we can make an arbitrarily small infidelity. Our generic method for enhancing atom-cavity interaction and cooperativities can be implemented in a wide range of physical systems, and it can provide diverse applications for quantum information processing.

Single-photon-induced two qubits excitation without breaking parity symmetry.

We investigate theoretically the model of two "qubits" system (one qubit having an auxiliary level) interacting with a single-mode resonator in the ultrastrong coupling regime. We show that a single photon could simultaneously excite two qubits without breaking the parity symmetry of system by properly encoding the excited states of qubits. The optimal parameter regime for achieving high probability approaching one is identified in the case of ignoring the system dissipation. Moreover, using experimentally feasible parameters, we also analyze the dissipation dynamics of the system, and present the realization of two-qubit excitation induced by single-photon. This work offers an alternative approach to realize the single-photon-induced two qubits excitation, which should advance the development of single-photon quantum technologies and have potential applications in quantum information science.

Hybrid Interference Induced Flat Band Localization in Bipartite Optomechanical Lattices.

The flat band localization, as an important phenomenon in solid state physics, is fundamentally interesting in the exploration of exotic ground property of many-body system. Here we demonstrate the appearance of a flat band in a general bipartite optomechanical lattice, which could have one or two dimensional framework. Physically, it is induced by the hybrid interference between the photon and phonon modes in optomechanical lattice, which is quite different from the destructive interference resulted from the special geometry structure in the normal lattice (e.g., Lieb lattice). Moreover, this novel flat band is controllable and features a special local density of states (LDOS) pattern, which makes it is detectable in experiments. This work offers an alternative approach to control the flat band localization with optomechanical interaction, which may substantially advance the fields of cavity optomechanics and solid state physics.

Controllable photon and phonon localization in optomechanical Lieb lattices.

The Lieb lattice featuring flat band is not only important in strongly-correlated many-body physics, but also can be utilized to inspire new quantum devices. Here we propose an optomechanical Lieb lattice, where the flat-band physics of photon-phonon polaritons is demonstrated. The tunability of the band structure of the optomechanical arrays allows one to obtain an approximate photon or phonon flat band as well as the transition between them. This ultimately leads to the result that the controllable photon or phonon localization could be realized by the path interference effects. This study offers an alternative approach to explore the exotic photon and phonon many-body effects, which has potential applications in the future hybrid-photon-phonon quantum network and engineering new type solid-state quantum devices.

Metrology with PT-Symmetric Cavities: Enhanced Sensitivity near the PT-Phase Transition.

We propose and analyze a new approach based on parity-time (PT) symmetric microcavities with balanced gain and loss to enhance the performance of cavity-assisted metrology. We identify the conditions under which PT-symmetric microcavities allow us to improve sensitivity beyond what is achievable in loss-only systems. We discuss the application of PT-symmetric microcavities to the detection of mechanical motion, and show that the sensitivity is significantly enhanced near the transition point from unbroken- to broken-PT regimes. Our results open a new direction for PT-symmetric physical systems and it may find use in ultrahigh precision metrology and sensing.

Solitons in optomechanical arrays.

We show that optical solitons can be obtained with a one-dimensional optomechanical array that consists of a chain of periodically spaced identical optomechanical systems. Unlike conventional optical solitons, which originate from nonlinear polarization, the optical soliton here stems from a new mechanism, namely, phonon-photon interaction. Under proper conditions, the phonon-photon induced nonlinearity that refers to the optomechanical nonlinearity will exactly compensate the dispersion caused by photon hopping of adjacent optomechanical systems. Moreover, the solitons are capable of exhibiting very low group velocity, depending on the photon hopping rate, which may lead to many important applications, including all-optical switches and on-chip optical architecture. This work may extend the range of optomechanics and nonlinear optics and provide a new field to study soliton theory and develop corresponding applications.

Optomechanically induced sum sideband generation.

Sum sideband generation in a generic optomechanical system is discussed in the parameter configuration of optomechanically induced transparency. The nonlinear terms of the optomechanical dynamics are taken account and the features of the sum sideband generation are identified based on the analytical treatment. The nonlinear optomechanical interactions between cavity fields and the mechanical oscillation, which emerging as a new frontier in cavity optomechanics, are responsible for the generation of the frequency components at the sum sideband. We analyze in detail the influences of some parameters, including the pump power of the control field and the frequencies of the probe fields, on the sum sideband generation. The results clearly indicate that sum sideband generation can be significantly enhanced via achieving the matching conditions. The effect of sum sideband generation may be accessible in experiments and have potential application for achieving high precision measurement and on-chip manipulation of light propagation.

Controllable chaos in hybrid electro-optomechanical systems.

We investigate the nonlinear dynamics of a hybrid electro-optomechanical system (EOMS) that allows us to realize the controllable opto-mechanical nonlinearity by driving the microwave LC resonator with a tunable electric field. A controllable optical chaos is realized even without changing the optical pumping. The threshold and lifetime of the chaos could be optimized by adjusting the strength, frequency, or phase of the electric field. This study provides a method of manipulating optical chaos with an electric field. It may offer the prospect of exploring the controllable chaos in on-chip optoelectronic devices and its applications in secret communication.

Optomechanically-induced transparency in parity-time-symmetric microresonators.

Optomechanically-induced transparency (OMIT) and the associated slowing of light provide the basis for storing photons in nanoscale devices. Here we study OMIT in parity-time (PT)-symmetric microresonators with a tunable gain-to-loss ratio. This system features a sideband-reversed, non-amplifying transparency, i.e., an inverted-OMIT. When the gain-to-loss ratio is varied, the system exhibits a transition from a PT-symmetric phase to a broken-PT-symmetric phase. This PT-phase transition results in the reversal of the pump and gain dependence of the transmission rates. Moreover, we show that by tuning the pump power at a fixed gain-to-loss ratio, or the gain-to-loss ratio at a fixed pump power, one can switch from slow to fast light and vice versa. These findings provide new tools for controlling light propagation using nanofabricated phononic devices.

PT-Symmetry-Breaking Chaos in Optomechanics.

We demonstrate PT-symmetry-breaking chaos in an optomechanical system, which features an ultralow driving threshold. In principle, this chaos will emerge once a driving laser is applied to the cavity mode and lasts for a period of time. The driving strength is inversely proportional to the starting time of chaos. This originally comes from the dynamical enhancement of nonlinearity by field localization in the PT-symmetry-breaking phase. Moreover, this chaos is switchable by tuning the system parameters so that a PT-symmetry phase transition occurs. This work may fundamentally broaden the regimes of cavity optomechanics and nonlinear optics. It offers the prospect of exploring ultralow-power-laser-triggered chaos and its potential applications in secret communication.

Squeezed optomechanics with phase-matched amplification and dissipation.

We investigate the nonlinear interaction between a squeezed cavity mode and a mechanical mode in an optomechanical system (OMS) that allows us to selectively obtain either a radiation-pressure coupling or a parametric-amplification process. The squeezing of the cavity mode can enhance the interaction strength into the single-photon strong-coupling regime, even when the OMS is originally in the weak-coupling regime. Moreover, the noise of the squeezed mode can be suppressed completely by introducing a broadband-squeezed vacuum environment that is phase matched with the parametric amplification that squeezes the cavity mode. This proposal offers an alternative approach to control the OMS using a squeezed cavity mode, which should allow single-photon quantum processes to be implemented with currently available optomechanical technology. Potential applications range from engineering single-photon sources to nonclassical phonon states.